A question I am curious to ask film collectors. You collect film, but how many of you shoot it? I do, not often, but when funds allow I'll grab a super 8 cartridge.

I am a film maker at heart and hopefully will be producing my 2nd movie in the coming year. It will be shot on 16mm. As film goes, shooting is expensive but yields beautiful results when done right. So, how many of you still have an 8mm, super 8, or 16mm camera capturing life?

I have had plans for a few years, bought film including processing, but yet to start. Scared of the camera not working, but hope it works and might shoot it this summer

Quote: Vidar Olavesen wrote in post #2

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I have had plans for a few years, bought film including processing, but yet to start. Scared of the camera not working, but hope it works and might shoot it this summer

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My spool of 16mm stock arrived Friday so I spent a bit of Saturday and Sunday shooting around my town. I mailed it to the lab yesterday for processing; hoping it comes out well (at least showing the camera doesn't have any issues) so I can gauge the equipment.

Would love to see the result :-)

Good or bad, I'll try to post some frames when I get it back.

As to your original question, while I primarily collect films, I did buy a Super 8 camera and shot some films in the early 1980s. However, I was never really satisfied with the results as I couldn’t fight the feeling that it had too much of that “home movie look,” even when employing light meters, etc. I was working in broadcasting at that time, so my expectation of quality was really high, something that shooting Super 8 could never really emulate given it was/is, at its very essence, an amateur gauge.

After a couple of years, I got rid of the camera and went back to focusing my Super 8 pursuits on film collecting.

We use to shoot a lot of super 8, made plenty of scilly nonsense, but glad we did as when we view it we remember many great times and fun, jumping in the car to Dartmoor to shoot great scenes and even a couple of cowboys films and civil was set shorts, one running for 20 minutes, completely technical rubbish but some sound effects and a bit of music makes it fun. Great fist fights in the freezing water, and of course our film set during WW2, which won us an IAC blue seal award and a Kodak gold certificate. This one film was our only serious attempt and it was superb fun. |In between all this was us growing up on STD 8 colour silent and our own kids from babies on super 8 direct sound.
i did have images from our war effort but i cant find the thread.

Super 8 is easier to shoot than 16mm due to the cartridges. My previous attempt at a 16mm test was awful. I had a Krasnogorsk-3 that jammed. Luckily, the shoot was a test for the camera, but the end product was unusable and I got rid of the camera. I then bought a Bolex Non-Reflex and went to my friend that runs a local cinema museum. He attempted to spool exposed film through the camera; didn't make it past the gate, so I got rid of the camera. My current 16mm camera that I just shot with, another Bolex, but a reflex model, I tested with a roll of exposed film from my friend and it ran through the mechanism fine. Next step was to shoot with fresh stock and see if there are any intermittent issues.

The film has been processed and is going to be delivered to me today!!! I feel like a child waiting with anxiousness for Christmas morning.

I have shot and developed 3 50' Super 8 three years ago. I bought 3 more cartridges last year. Shot two of them, but haven't developed them yet. Will shoot the last one this summer and develop. I love it. I shot two of the films at the same place my parents shot films 50 years ago. My parents are on the film. It is so cool to have films of them on 8mm with 50 years apart. I have never tried 16mm. That would be fun, but I think I will stick to 8mm for now. Quite expensive, it is.

I can't afford to shoot 16mm now; your talking at the cheapest, £95 including processing for 4 minutes of film. I have a Krasnogorsk 3 , and had no problems. You need a special battery adaptor as the original batteries are no longer available. I just sold a Bolex reflex that I had 9 years and never used. I have at present 4 B&H Filmo 70s of different types, including the original from about 1925. My problem that I found with one other B&H camera that I sold on, was that the lens only went down to f16, and the light meter told me I needed f22. I had to keep waiting for the sun to go in.

I found the problem with the K3 I had after shooting, a piece was missing from the film guide which ensured the film did not move forward. 16mm is expensive, but being that my next short subject will be shot on the format, I need to ensure that I am comfortable with it (loading in darkness, keeping the camera wound, etc.). I have sought assistance with funding the project but have to wait for the committee results at the end of August/early September. I am not getting my hopes high as Texas, especially Austin, has a lot of people making "movies" and will be applying for funds from the limited pool as well.

Anyway, hoping that the footage arriving proves my camera works!

I was lucky, I got mine as New but old stock; it came from a warehouse in Moscow.

The film looks very good with strong color. Since this was strictly for camera testing, I shot in different conditions (shadows, full sun, interior, etc.) and the stock performed very well for reversal. Until I can get a new editing PC, here are some cell phone snapshots taken over my tablet (for bright lighting) thus you will see odd "screen-like" webbing from the light source. First up is a picture of a mural in town. The center figure is Texas Ranger Cpt. John Coffee Hays (which I portrayed in a documentary and my profile picture is from).

Here is a shot (with the LED webbing) of the Palace Theater in my town. It houses a cinema museum which showcases the various gauges of film, projectors, and other curiosities.

All looks very good Don.